Side A – Yasgrid
Yasgrid hadn’t lost track of the nightmares she’d woken. She just hadn’t quite followed up with all of them.
Or checked if they wanted to go back to the slumber from which she’d roused them.
To her credit though, she had made sure that the ones that wanted to become something more than they’d been trapped as being had been given the chance to cast aside their old existences for new ones.
And a lot had taken her up on that!
She was very proud of the ones she knew of who’d chosen to become something new.
Had they all chosen gentle and calm personas? Well, no, of course not. But they weren’t nightmares anymore. They didn’t have to torment people.
And if some of them chose to?
Endings might be gone, but they did know that the Sorceress who’d freed them from their fates was still out there and potentially able to object to any new mayhem they got up to.
“So do we need to head back to the Darkwood?” Marianna asked.
“That depends on Yasgrid,” Kyra said. “Can you sense the Nightmares you released still?”
Given their physical distance from the Darkwood, Yasgrid could have claimed it was too far to tell, but physical distance wasn’t really an issue in this case.
“Some of them,” Yasgrid said, closing her eyes to search for the rest.
“Why not all?” Marianne asked.
“Because they’re not what they were when she knew them,” Kyra said.
“Almost none of them are, but I can still sense most of the ones I spoke to,” Yasgrid said, hearing just how bad that sounded as she spoke the words.
“Most?” Marianne asked, emphasizing the singularly important word in Yasgrid’s claim. “Did the others leave the Darkwood?”
“No. I don’t think so.” Yasgrid knew she couldn’t be certain about it, but while she couldn’t pinpoint the location of the missing nightmares, she could still feel their general presence lurking amidst the woods.
“This isn’t a scenario where I can provide much foresight for you,” Kyra said. “I didn’t see this happen often and each time was fairly unique. What I can suggest however is that it might be better to let Nia handle this particular issue.”
“Nia?” Marianne asked. “This needs drumming to resolve?”
“I’m not sure,” Kyra said. “What I do suspect however is that the ones who are hiding from Yasgrid have already proven themselves capable of doing so.”
“And so she’s not likely to find them if they don’t want her too. Will Nia’s connect to Yasgrid be a detriment to her though?”
“Possibly, or it may help her find them more easily,” Kyra said.
“Because only Yasgrid has spoken with them, so only she has a connection to them and Nia may be able to utilize that connection, especially in concert with her drumming.”
“Also, Nia’s already offered to help the Fate Dancers and they may be willing to speak with her where Yasgrid or I would receive a rather different welcome.”
“It’s more than that,” Yasgrid said. “Nia will bring more than Shatter Drumming with her. For all that she’s a Stoneling now, she still carries the gentler magics of the Darkwood in her hands too.”
Side B – Nia
It was such a relief to have a cheap mug cracked over her head that Nia almost burst into tears.
They don’t love me! They really don’t! It was a far more comforting thought than the alternative.
Also, it gave her full permission to smash her own mug, thereby ensuring that she didn’t need to finish the Rotgut in it. So it was a win – win situation!
“Now this is what I was looking for!” Gossma said, holding a Roadie in a fierce headlock as he jumped backwards to smash her into one of the wagons.
“You know, there’s more singing than I thought there’d be?” Margrada said, deftly ducking under a drunk swing without spilling her freshly poured mug.
“Yeah, and they’re not half bad either,” Nia said, stealing a mug from one of the passerbys before they could use it for other than it’s intended purpose (assuming that Roadie mugs intended purpose wasn’t as a bludgeoning device).
“Not half good either,” Belhelen said, headbutting a Roadie who was about to clobber Nia from behind.
“So this is normal then I take it?” Margrada said.
“I don’t know,” Nia said. “This is a big louder and bigger than what I’ve seen.”
“But you partied with them on the road before, right?” Belhelen said gesturing with her mug, which Nia, of course, stole.
Not being quite the fool Nia was, Belhelen hadn’t switched to Roadie Rotgut, but she had, apparently, decided to try the Greenevers’s Dark which Gossma had started with.
Nia would have appreciated it more but the foul taste of the Rotgut had left her tongue in such revolt that the Greenever’s only served to placate a handful of tastebuds and even they were half numbed and unresponsive.
“There are more Roadies here,” Nia said. “And I’m sure they’re showing off for each other too, but I don’t know, this feels more determined than before?”
“Determined?” Belhelen asked.
“Yeah, like there a purpose here that wasn’t there at the other parties,” Nia said, trying to chase the thought through the haze the Rotgut had cast over her mind.
“Purpose? This is…huh,” Margrada said and turned her head to listen.
Nia did too because her stray thoughts had latched onto something.
It wasn’t the screaming. It wasn’t the ‘I’m actually in distress” sort of screaming but rather the “I can’t believe you did that. I can’t believe I did that” that was so common at a Roadie party that she was almost unaware of it.
It wasn’t the singing either. Contrary to Belhelen’s claim, Nia found the Roadies singing to be lovely. It was nearly a part of the screaming but it was filled with so much life it was impossible for her not to be swept up in it.
The Roadies’ song wasn’t what called to her though.
What really caught her attention was the beat.
There was no drum playing but underneath the whole party there was a beat, a painfully familiar, world Shattering beat.